Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

The Leopold Center is a research and education center on the campus of Iowa State University created to identify and reduce negative environmental and social impacts of farming and develop new ways to farm profitably while conserving natural resources. The Center's work is focused in these initiatives - ecological systems research, marketing and food systems research, policy research and cross-cutting research that bridges all areas (water, energy, soil and alternative farming systems).

Life in the local food lane

What's ahead for local food in Iowa? How does it connect to other issues, like the economy, food security and hunger? Craig Chase offers a glimpse in this Q&A with the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Chase is interim leader of the Leopold Center's Marketing and Food Systems Initiative and coordinator for the Local Food and Farm Program, an initiative created by the Iowa Legislature in 2011 to increase the availability of Iowa-grown products in Iowa.
Frontpage Features Archive

Whiterock, the 'rarest of sanctuaries'

"I have been fortunate to work in the spectacular and vast wildernesses of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Mojave Desert. However, I have seen few other comprehensive land conservation organizations on the scale of Whiterock. I am inspired by this rich vision of combining wild and worked lands, restoring ecosystems, providing environmental education, researching sustainable agriculture and offering public recreation, all on one gorgeous west-central Iowa landscape."  -- Conrad Kramer, new executive director, Whiterock Conservancy. The Leopold Center is one of three supporting organizations for this 5,000-acre land trust.